I've been thinking about this some more.

Lets move outsisde 4x games for a moment.

In World of Warcraft... how ridiculous would it be if people insisted that the main tank also be the hightest dps and also the best healer? (ok yes Pally's are broken but shush)

In Knights of the Old Republic we were given a choice of Jedi Sentinel, Jedi, Counselor, and some other one that I currently forget... 


In these games the specializations actually CHANGE how the game is played.  They mean something.


As of yet the tech focus's in GCIII just give minor bonuses...     they don't really change the game.

If they are going to change the tech tree so that the specializations actually change the game or give some meaningful reason why the other areas are no longer available... then I'm cool with lockouts.   This is actually what Paul seemed to indicate was what is being done.

However as it is...   I think they should just make the successive tech's more expensive to research and leave it open for us to do what we please.


So either make the specializations special...  or let us have everything.

This is 4x, not rpg or mmorpg, there is a difference.

If you look at some of the favorite 4x genres there is, some of those tiles have progressive research, like you can research 1 item N+ times with diminishing returns. Also Tech tree is one of the 1x of 4x that makes 4x fun.

The concept of locking techs and forcing trade to get them is sound one if it was that from get go- in the beginning. Some people have gotten used to having all tech tree. This decision of Stardock, if no compromise can be achieved may divide some players in community, as mentioned in above posts. Lets say community is 1000 people, forums are read by 200. So if 50 people are against that idea- the total sum in people is a major one who express their opinion.

One solution would be giving a tech tree choice! Restricted vs unrestricted- that would solve the problem entirely.

The idea of forced trade can be good if implemented organically, other tiles have managed that in the past.

Mostly frustration comes from changing a fundamental play thing we all are used to by giving restrictions.

Some questions: Why now, not then? Who will benefit? How the game will change? SP vs MP? and so on.

I am totaly against collapsing specializations. And if they are added in I will mod them out.

reasons:

1. It makes no sense in the game: It is supposed to be research, there's no justification for it. Even racial techs are borderline here, but it is passable that a race is more inclined to reaserach specific things and that other techs are taboo or go against their nature.

2. Specialization is already implemented in the sense that I choose what to reasearch. Forever forgeting other options is too ad-hoc and does not fit the 4x genre/

3. Clean up: picking up the specializations I left behind in the early game helps with cleaning up/ the exterminate phase.

4. Explain to me how can I choose all ideologies at the same time including good/evil and not have the ability to reasearch all paths of knowledge. Totaly absurd.

5. Locking out permanent planetary colony efficiency techs, for extreme worlds or even empire wide bonuses makes me wanna cry.

6. Locking out treaties and trade types makes me wanna cry.

Solutions:

1. Have just the linked specializations increase in cost by a large specialization multiplier. This combined with the tree increasing cost should balance it and make it hard.

2. Have specialization slots that you can reasearch only once per tech branch per categoty. The player selects one and the rest are pushed onwards on the next slot. Once all the brach/tree is researched then the player can research the skipped techs at the end of the game ala MOO future tech.

and by the way stardock, where are future techs? you did implement them on Elemental but you left them out on GC 3? Why?

But he was, because he had to choose his load out for each mission.  He couldn't carry everything.   He pointedly mentioned that for mission X he choose Y, and so forth.   But I do see your point in a  more general sense.   My point is that he could not choose one weapon to always carry that did everything because all the research had been done.   In the game one would say you can build something using X, but not with Y and Z also at the same time in the same ship.   Little hard to program maybe, but hardly unrealistic.